Trend hunting and market research
“Now, let me tell you how we investigate an industry and the trends…”
Agent 007 has not yet completed the sentence when Agent M enters the room rushing, interrupting her.
“Agent 007, I’ve got a new mission for you…” then he pauses, as if to decide whether to talk about it in front of you or not.
Then, after catching his breath, he starts to explain. “A big job. A company wants to find out how the innovation in its industry is moving and what works right now on the Internet.
Their goal is to launch new products in line with market changes and restructuring their online marketing strategy. They need all the information we can gather about it, you have to start as soon as possible!”
Agent 007, happy because of the new challenge, answers to her boss. “What a good news M!” She then turns facing you, explaining you the situation: “Things are changing in the right direction! More and more companies are fed up with taking these decisions by instinct, as they always had.
They are starting to realize that they need the full picture on what’s going on before spending their budget, sometimes a very huge budget, and mobilizing the entire company under uncertainty!”
“We help companies have the full picture on their market and the new trends, to avoid strategic pitfalls and to plan winning strategies.”
Agent M takes the floor. “Exactly! The top management of this company has the impression of being left behind by the competition and they want to do something concrete in a short time.
They tried to launch some innovative products in the past, but always relying on their instinct and with mediocre results.
In addition, they feel the need of a real change in mentality and of a breath of fresh air!
They had tried to ask their marketing agency for some ideas, but the scope of the investigation was really narrow…
So they called us because they want a wide-scope research, that could open new horizons for them.”
Trend hunting advantages:
“Coming to us was the right move!” Agent 007 exclaims, still facing you.
“These are complex investigations in which it’s necessary to proceed test after test, not following a standard method but exploring further every result.
They would need the right tools and the advanced knowledge on how to nose out the information … following the right tracks, you can discover endless things! “
“Obviously we do not have a crystal ball and we can’t predict the future” interject Agent M, “but we can gather solid evidence on which to base the future decisions.”
“Well said!” Agent 007 says. “To give you an example, on a past mission we brought to light all the innovations in the industry for a client.
They have just attended a trade show and so they were aware that things were changing in their market. But they could not make sense of what steps to do next and, more importantly, how to protect their market share from future changes!
We started from listing all the most successful new startups born in Italy and abroad in their market. Among these, we identified the ones that could have been a threat for our client, because they offered potentially competing or substitute products. For the most dangerous, we activated a continuous monitoring to keep them under control.
Other startups and projects, however, could have been an excellent partnership opportunity, because they offered attractive products or complementary technologies. We actually started to talk about it with some of them, beating the competition on time and avoiding other competitors to take advantage of their new technologies!
But we did not stop there and we continued to investigate, following the tracks of the innovations that we had uncovered.
From the Internet of Things, to the sharing economy, to smart glasses, these innovations could be applied to our customer’s industry and bring concrete benefits, simplifying the interaction with consumers and the ease of work for the employees.
Sharing these discoveries with the entire company has helped to innovate the way of thinking, broadening managers’ horizons and opening up to new opportunities!”
The range of what we can help you find out is very broad:
1. We outline the most innovative projects in your field
2. We bring to light new technologies that may be useful
3. We answer your business questions
4. We follow the global evolution new trends
“In another case that I personally followed, we studied the spread of a trend” Agent M interjects.
“The client had the plan to launch an innovative product line that was following a trend born in the US, but he was not sure it would work in Europe.
The client had many unanswered questions, that would not let him rest easy:
All more than legitimate questions when you are about to do a jump in the dark!
With our investigation we answered all their questions and found out that the trend was more than solid and indeed very profitable for the companies that were catching it first.
Moreover, in recent years the trend was spreading in Europe as well: some European competitors had already experimented in that direction, while the word of mouth was increasing especially on sector-based magazines.
People were not speaking a lot about it on social networks and they were using different terms than the US ones, paying attention to different features.
Oh, I was forgetting that we also spotted ideas and tips on marketing initiatives that worked for the launch of the new line, observing the most successful cases around the world.”
“The most important thing to understand,” Agente 007 says, “is that our investigations bring evidence to different roles inside the companies.”
First of all, they help the management take strategic decisions, such as the launch of a new product line, the start of a technological partnership or the entrance in a new unknown market. The impact of these choices at the corporate level is so high, that they should not be taken lightly!
But there is more: this information is also useful for people working in product development. In fact, for those who work always inserted in a certain industry and the same way of thinking, it’s difficult to open their mind and look around objectively!
More, we can investigate to help anyone involved in branding and marketing to take a hint from what happens in the world, leveraging good ideas that can be applied to their marketing campaigns.”
“That’s right! This is why before starting any investigations it is very important to understand who needs the information and why!” Agent M concludes.
“Agent 007, I will send you immediately the full brief for this new mission, so you can start thinking about the case as soon as you finish your visit with your guest. Good work!” So saying, M greets and leaves the room.